UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ANY MEDICATIONS YOU
ARE TAKING ARE GOING TO BE DISCONTINUED BY ME AT THE INITIAL VISIT. I WANT YOU TO CLEARLY
UNDERSTAND THAT IN MY PROFESSIONAL OPINION YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO TAKE ALL YOUR
MEDICATIONS UNTIL YOU AND YOUR PRIMARY PHYSICIAN DECIDE THAT YOUR CONDITION HAS IMPROVED
TO THE POINT WHEN CERTAIN MEDICINES CAN BE SLOWLY TAPERED OFF. PLEASE DO NOT STOP TAKING
YOU MEDICATIONS WITHOUT CONSULTING WITH YOUR PRIMARY PHYSICIAN.

You are a very complex
unique human being who, probably, has more than one health problem, that causes misbalance
of your entire body on different integrative levels. An abrupt, unwarranted
discontinuation of your medication will cause even a more dramatic misbalance, which
ultimately means a worsening of your illnesses and a possible deterioration of your
well-being. A very simple example of that is a severe withdrawal caused by an abrupt
discontinuation of a tranquilizer, i.e. Xanax. By doing that, one can cause severe health
problems, including seizures, a dangerous increase in blood pressure and pulse,
hallucinations. Similar, but not necessarily equally obvious situation could be caused by
a sudden discontinuation of antidepressants, certain blood pressure medications and many
other conventional drugs. In all these cases the balance achieved in your body is suddenly
violated. That usually leads to a state that is worse than before and in some cases could
be life threatening. Homeopathic medicines will help to restore the balance by stimulating
different complex defense mechanisms of your body. It is a long, complicated process. In
accord with many other practitioners I strongly believe in cooperation, integration of
different treatment modalities, rather than competition and opposition. There is no
evidence, at least to my knowledge, of any negativistic relationship between conventional
and homeopathic treatment. When you are ready, your primary physician or the specialist
will be able to decrease or, if possible, to discontinue your medications. This approach
will allow to gradually increase your well being to the ultimate point of you becoming
either completely independent or significantly less dependent on any kind of medications.

Not knowing what is
going on with your body on the "conventional" level could create severe problems
and, in some cases could be dangerous. A simple example would be a hypothetical case of an
80-year-old woman, who fell in her apartment and experienced acute pain in her hip, which
improved with Tylenol. Only in a few days, when the pain became so severe that it would
not respond to any painkillers, this woman called 911. As you, probably have guessed, she
had a hip fracture, which could have been successfully treated with surgery on day one. No
other method of treatment could address this situation in a curative way. There are many
similar situations, which could be less obvious. Thats why in a majority of cases I
would like you to have a "conventional" doctor. I might ask you to see a
physician and to have additional laboratory tests, including imaging studies, if
necessary. I have to be able to evaluate your illness from every aspect available. No
additional information can hurt. A lack of sufficient information might negatively impact
your treatment and, ultimately, your well-being. If I cannot evaluate the results of
certain tests myself, I will not hesitate to contact one of your doctors for
clarification.

I also have to tell you
that figuring out what is the correct remedy for somebody, who is taking numerous (or
sometimes even one) conventional drugs might present a great challenge to the homeopath.
Just think about it. Lets say somebody has a headache. Takes two Tylenols. The headache is
gone. In a few days the headache comes back. Two Tylenols. No headache. And so on. By the
time this person comes to see a homeopath, a few things are going to happen. Well,
obviously headaches keep coming back. But the pain is not the same. Areas to which the
pain radiates have changed or disappeared. There might be some new symptoms caused by
Tylenol (so called "side-effects"). An experienced homeopath will be able to see
through these new symptoms and prescribe the correct remedy (if the patient still
remembers how he (she) felt before). I guess you can easily appreciate how much more
complex the real life situation can be. Very often patients take more than five different
medications all at the same time.